Saturday, October 8, 2016

TEAM ROJO & FRIENDS - BLOG 20 - CRUNCHY LEAVES

Sir WHIP swung his legs over the
edge of his bed early one morning, yawning, but well rested and ready for
adventure.One never knew what the day
would bring in the Team RoJo household.Once in his bathroom (which Ro and Jo's dad and Poppop had hooked up to
the house plumbing so the sink, toilet, and shower all actually worked, though he
lived in a doll house) he did his business, then hopped in the shower and
lathered up.After that he dried off,
then buffed each and every one of his sparkly orange scales until they
glittered in the sunlight coming in the window.

He hurried downstairs, out of the
house onto the table that his home sat upon, and stepped right up to the edge
of it.He leapt off the edge, flapping
his wings, and on the way to the floor made himself Ro's size, so he could walk
through the RoJo house without getting stepped on and smooshed.

He found his friends in the
kitchen, having breakfast, their eyes sliding toward the back door – they seemed
a little bummed-out.

"Good morning everyone," Sir
WHIP said to Ro, Jo, and Kato, all crunching on cereal or kibble – you can
figure out who was gobbling what."Do I detect some glumness on this fine
Saturday morning?"

"Well, it's Autumn, and one of
our favorite months of the year," Ro said, her face leaning dejectedly on
her fist, her elbow on the table propping it up.

"So why aren't you
happy?" Sir WHIP didn't get the gloominess.

"Because our favorite thing is
to crunch leaves, like Nana Terri showed me when I was really, really
little."

"Oh yes!I enjoy that too!When those big fat leaves' edges curl under
just right and make a big crunch when you step on them! So satisfying!" Sir WHIP said, smiling at
the very thought of the crunchy goodness under his big dragon feet.And then he thought about the kids' mood some
more and said, "I still don't understand why you're so sad.It's a bright, sunny, cool fall morning.Why aren't you scarfing down your breakfasts
and jumping on crispy leaves and raking them into piles to leap into?"

"That's why we're a little
sad, Sir WHIP.Look outside.It's been raining for the last two days.The leaves are soggier than our corn
flakes," Jo said sadly.

"It will take a week for the
leaves to dry out, and it's supposed to rain again on Monday," Ro said,
thinking that Sir WHIP didn't fully understand the problem.

"Hurry and finish your
breakfast!Time's a-wastin'!Leaves a-waitin'!"

Ro and Jo just looked up from their
cereal bowls at one another and rolled their eyes.Their sparkly orange friend obviously didn't
understand the water-logged leaf situation.

Nevertheless, they gobbled up the
rest of their breakfast and hurried out the door to the sidewalk where Sir WHIP
waited for them.

"See?" Jo said, turning
about and pointing down at the damp sidewalk where there were still even little
puddles with leaves bogged down in them.

"Come with me," Sir WHIP said,
and led the way down the block, stopping all the way at the corner.He turned back toward Ro and Jo's house, and
began taking very slow steps along the sidewalk, flanked by his friends, and a waggily-tailed
Kato.All eyes grew wide as Sir WHIP took
a big, deep breath, leaned his big nose down toward the leaves on the sidewalk,
and breathed out, kindof sniffing in reverse.Ro and Jo both gasped as little puffs of smoke blew out of Sir WHIP's
snout.

But what began to happen next made
them both clap for joy.The very warm
air that Sir WHIP was blowing out his nose began to dry the leaves on the
sidewalk.

At the sight of the leaves curling
up and drying out – getting crunchier and crunchier, Ro, Jo, Sir WHIP, and even
Kato began hopping and jumping up the sidewalk, crunching all the leaves!

Sir WHIP dried every leaf on the
whole block, and soon there were happy children, especially Ro and Jo,
crunching, raking, and jumping in piles of leaves all over the
neighborhood!

On
September 13th, 2015 Terri married her Hottie Scottie, Blaze
McRob (Robert Nelson), who is an equally twisted horror writer who found her
online, crept into her world, swept her off her feet and revels in the fact that
they are two peas in a very strange pod.

No
doubt there will be many dark fiction tales for ooky aficionados to revel in
coming very soon.